So....Hover Rigs....

[Carpkiller]

No, I don't use the electronics that boosted these baits' popularity. The basic idea is to have a bait that's center weighted so it swims level at a consistent depth.

However....it looks like you can jam a hover rig jig (basically a jig hook with a nail weight cast on the shank) into just about any bait becomes a weighted soft jerkbait that'll work in the bays. So you can make it dart around AND get down to the eelgrass tops, or the bottom where it's not weedy....and drag it, hop it or make it dart around.
Has anyone tried the hover rigs in the bays?

edit: I realize that the store bought hover rigs have topheavy hook-size-to-jig-weight weight ratios, so I'm try em out..and if they swim like I I want 'em to....I'll have to buy a mold and make my own. With a 7/32 or 1/4 oz lead chunk and a spotty-sized hook, like a 1/0....

thanks,
don't asCK, don't.....learn.

[Gotfish?]

Looks like it would catch a lot of grass in the bay. Tube baits (e.g. the Scorchers you make) dart unpredictably and can even spiral down if you give them a snap when retrieving. For that reason, I usually use a swivel with fishing with them (also functions as a grass catcher).

Center of gravity is similar to some darter and tube jig heads I have seen. Or to a snap jig (https://www.berkley-fishing.com/collect ... -snap-jigs ). The ones I have tried catch fish but they load up with grass.

Video:

[Carpkiller]

True, a hover rig isn't going to do anything that a tube bait won't do..and both are grass grabbers. I am only interested because of the details that injection-molded baits have (overall profile, scales, gill plates, faces)....and different ways I can color them, compared to the tube baits.

[VinnyBass]

I have used them and with light tackle and caught bass. It is one of my "reaction baits" I talk about in my fish reports. I have not used
them too often, but I can see that with more use they can be pretty effective. I like the way the bait stays basically horizontal
which mades it more like an actual bait fish. I have used spinning gear with 6 to 8lb test.
Here is a pic of a few of the rigged baits I have used:
On top is a small Daminki bait
The middle one is a Yamamoto bait
and the bottoms rigged with a BassTrix

[Carpkiller]

Vinny,

There was a day when something like that yamamoto bait was working better than anything else on the spotties in the Cays. I didn't have 'em...but a kayak guide's client was killing with 'em. I swapped him some of my other baits for a couple of his, and I caught spotties 'til the baits were chewed to pieces.


This is really me looking for an excuse to buy another mold.

this is the Jerkin' shad from Fat Guys Fishing. It's a coreshot setup, meaning you make the body hollow (using a rod down the middle of the cavity) then shoot the color down the middle.

But if I shorten the rods, I could make 3-inch baits with a solid nose, with the channel down the center starting about 3/8 of an inch back. So the hover rig leadhead could be jammed in there and have a bit of room so the bait would be less likely to split. and the long green tail would not be there...and scent could be shot up into the bait through the hollow body. Part of the rationale is to be able to make a hover-style bait out of harder plastic, the hollow core making it less likely to split when the jighead is jammed into it....AND not be chewed to pieces as quickly by toothy fish like spotties...

As noted earlier by wiser heads, this lure would pretty much be a variation of the ScorcherZ tube baits. Fishable at any depth, eelgrass collector if not fished very carefully....

But I could also make coreshot baits as pictured, or baits that were all one color, or two color (coreshots) Or laminate-style two color bodies with or without the coreshot.

The mind reels....

maybe when my tax return gets here....